Ship Carrying Burning Iron Diverted To Baltimore Port

A ship carrying 10,000 tons of smoldering scrap iron moored in Baltimore early today so that its cargo could be extinguished, a Coast Guard official said.

The crew of the 708-foot Liberian-registered Federal Rhine notified the Coast Guard on Sunday that the processed scrap iron in one of its holds had been smoldering since Wednesday, said Petty Officer 1st Class Rick Woods, a spokesman for the Coast Guard's 5th District. The ship had been en route from Venezuela to Morehead City, N.C., but was diverted up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore because that port city was better equipped to handle the burning iron, he said.

Firefighters were standing by at the Curtis Bay Coal Pier in Baltimore as the ship pulled in shortly after midnight, the Coast Guard said.

Two Coast Guard inspectors boarded the 20,000-ton ship about noon Monday in waters about three miles east of the Cape Henry lighthouse. About an hour later, the inspectors determined that the ship was seaworthy and would be able to make the journey safely, Woods said.

The fire was confined to a large hold where the iron cargo is kept, Woods said. The iron was smoldering and smoke was not visible outside the ship, he said. "It's not like big flames shooting out of it or anything," he said.

The investigators determined that the smoldering "appears to be just on the surface" of the cargo, Woods said.

He said port crews in Baltimore have handled this type of fire before.

Marine firefighters were planning to extinguish the fire by off-loading the smoldering iron onto the pier using a clam shell bucket and crane and letting it cool naturally, the Coast Guard said.

The operation will be jointly supervised by the Coast Guard, the Baltimore City Fire Department and the Maryland Port Administration.

The iron, molded into briquettes and known as direct reduced iron, is a form of the metal that has all the oxygen removed from it. Removal of the oxygen decreases the weight of the iron by a third, according to an article about metal-caused fires aboard ships in the Proceedings of the Marine Safety Council magazine. The iron in that form resembles steel wool, Woods said.

While the iron in the non-oxygen form is lighter in weight, it also is more combustible. Metal powders such as aluminum, zirconium and iron are used in pyrotechnics, the Marine Safety Council article says. For example, a mixture of aluminum and a form of iron, ferric oxide powder, is called thermite - the main ingredient in incendiary bombs, the article says.

Investigators didn't determine the cause of the fire, but according to the magazine article, a lack of ventilation in a cargo hold could cause the iron to heat up above 200 degrees, causing spontaneous combustion.

Contact with water, causing the iron to rust, also increases the temperature within the material, the article says.

The shipping agent in Morehead City could not be reached for comment on where the iron was to be shipped to or what it was to be used for.